Whither the Malaysia Education Blueprint?

In September 2013, the Education Ministry launched the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025, a document touted by then education minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as the “most comprehensive and biggest manifestation of government transformation in getting the best returns in human capital to drive all national development aspirations.”

The Blueprint was in part a response to declining standards of Malaysian students relative to their peers in international assessments such as Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study).

In the 2012 Pisa assessment, which is a triennial survey conducted by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) on 15-year-olds worldwide in areas of Reading, Mathematics and Science, Malaysia ranked 52 out of 65 participating countries. In all three subject areas, Malaysian students ranked far below average, losing out to our neighbours such as Singapore, Thailand and even Vietnam. In fact, Malaysia’s results represented a deterioration from the previous edition of Pisa in 2009.

This downtrend is mirrored in the quadrennial TIMSS assessment, which has seen Malaysia suffering the biggest decline among 59 countries surveyed since 1999. While Malaysian students managed to place 16th in Mathematics and 22nd in Science in 1999, their performances dropped to 26th in Mathematics and 32nd in Science in 2011.

More worryingly, 38% of Malaysian students failed to meet the minimum international benchmark in Mathematics and Science in 2011, compared to 20% in 2007 and about five to 7% in 2003. On the flipside, only 2% managed to attain the highest, advanced international benchmark in 2011, which is a big drop from 10% in 1999. Meanwhile, unlike Malaysia, other Asian countries such as Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong have all made gains since 1999.

Accordingly, the Blueprint has identified that while our students “excelled at reproducing subject content,” they were uncompetitive in assessments such as Pisa and TIMSS because they “struggle with higher-order thinking skills.” Recognising the need to hone skills that would enable our students “to reason, to extrapolate, and to creatively apply their knowledge,”  the Blueprint therefore outlines 11 shifts that would transform the current exam-oriented system into one that would “focus less on predicting what topics and questions will come out and drilling for content recall,” and instead train students “to think critically and to apply their knowledge in different settings.”

Therefore, with the goal of making it into the top third of global rankings in international assessments such as PISA and TIMSS by 2025, many educational reforms were implemented. At the primary level, the KBSR (Primary School Integrated Curriculum) curriculum was replaced with the new KSSR (Primary School Standard Curriculum) curriculum, which seeks to expand the previous focus on developing 3Rs (Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic) into 4Rs with an additional focus on a fourth element, Reasoning.

Additionally, the Blueprint also recognises that summative national examinations such as the UPSR, PMR and SPM “do not currently test the full range of skills that the education system aspires to produce.”  Thus, in order to shift the focus away from rote learning towards higher-order thinking skills, school-based assessment would be introduced and incorporated into the UPSR and SPM examinations, while the PMR would be abolished. In fact, the Blueprint clearly states that by 2016, “higher-order thinking questions will comprise at least 40% of questions in UPSR and 50% in SPM” by 2016.

In line with this new direction, a circular dated February 22, 2011, was issued by the ministry to inform that the UPSR examination format will be changed from the current 100% written, central examination to one where the written papers only constitute 60% of the total marks, while the remaining 40% will be derived from school-based assessment. As stated in the Blueprint, this new format was due to begin in 2016.

And so, since 2011, five years have been spent preparing hundreds of thousands of teachers and students for this new methodology of evaluation, which encountered teething obstacles during its initial implementation. Following protests by teachers frustrated by its tedious and inefficient processes, the controversial school-based assessment system was later revamped and simplified.

Unfortunately, just two years into the implementation of the Blueprint, some of these policies are now being reversed. On October 9, 2015, a circular was issued rescinding the 2011 decision. This means that the expected changes to incorporate 40% school-based assessment into the UPSR examination due to take place next year have been cancelled, and the UPSR will continue to be a 100% written, central examination.

This flip-flop decision by the ministry effectively means that all the time and resources invested into preparing everyone for the new UPSR format, not to mention the efforts in developing, implementing and then revamping the school-based assessment system, has been all for nought.

In addition to the incorporation of school-based assessment into the UPSR and SPM examinations, the Blueprint also states that practical assessments for science subjects would be reintroduced beginning 2015.  However, this too has been put off following the announcement earlier this year that practical examinations for Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Additional Science, scheduled for implementation in this year’s SPM, would be deferred.

Another fundamental problem identified by the Blueprint is poor English proficiency, which ranks amongst “the top five issues facing Malaysian employers.” Furthermore, only “28% of students achieved a minimum credit in the 2011 SPM English paper against Cambridge 1119 standards.”

Hence, amongst the many measures highlighted by the Blueprint to address this deficiency is to make English a compulsory pass subject at the SPM level by 2016.  This too, has now been postponed, to the dismay of many parents and education activists who have long sought this commitment to enhance the importance of improving the declining standards of English language comprehension.

Not only have these flip-flop decisions wasted years spent training and preparing teachers, parents and students for the new changes, it also calls into question the relevance of the 12-year education transformation plan known as the Malaysia Education Blueprint. What use is the Blueprint now, when key milestones are not adhered to?

The implications of these policy U-turns are serious, as it indicates failure on the part of the ministry to implement the Blueprint’s reforms, as well as to adequately prepare students and teachers for the new evaluation formats. If even the short-term objectives cannot be met, then there is real cause to believe that the Blueprint is nothing more than an unrealistic and insincere attempt at reforming the education system. – October 26, 2015.

Notes:

1. http://education.bernama.com/index.php?sid=news_content&id=975685.

2. Malaysia Education Blueprint, p. E-11.

3. Malaysia Education Blueprint, p.4-3.

4.  Ibid.

5. Op. cit., p.4-8.

6. Op. cit., p. E-12.

7. Ibid.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.